Teaching
by onyxwaterfall
Summary: Faith goes to collect a potential. But her methods of persuation aren't quite as convincing as she believes.


**Title: **Teaching  
**Disclaimer: **Please don't sue me; purely for entertainment. No infrigement intended.  
**Pairings:**None  
**Note: **Season 7 after Faith has returned to Sunnydale. It's like an in-between episodes type thing.  
**Feedback: **Always and forever D  
**Rating: **R for language and violence.

* * *

As she hurries down the alley way she grips tight onto the broken piece of wood she had broken off a chair leg. She glances behind her a brief moment, catching a glimpse of the three shadows behind her. She looks in front of her and continues to run, her chest heaving impatiently, straining from being deprived of oxygen. She sees up ahead the end of the alley, and curses. _A wire fence, I can do those..._she thinks to herself, furrowing her eyebrows and breathing heavily as she approaches it. She grabs the diamond shaped wires and uses all her strength to pull her up above the fence. She climbs up onto the slanted roof next to it and hurries up, further up the roof until she reaches a flat open space roof. She slows and bends at the waist, grasping her thighs for support. She furrows her eyebrows deep, her shoulder length brown hair clinging to her face and neck from the perspiration emitting itself from her body. She gasps as one of the figures takes her by surprise, throwing her across the roof.

She quickly straightens out and swallows. _I can do this. _She rushes towards the vampire, and backhands it, before grasping it's shoulder with her other hand in which still held the stake, and she head butts him, followed by a backwards crescent kick, and sends him back in the direction in which she figured he came from. She throws the stake towards him, hoping it will impale him, just as she wanted, though he catches it, just as it threatens to pierce his skin, and he throws it aside.

She curses beneath her breath, realising she is out of weapons, and turns, scurries and searches for a place of exit. She pulls on the dilapidated door handle, trying to budge it, though quickly realises it won't move. She kicks it in opposition of its correct way, and it bursts in. She hurries down the stairs, whimpering a little as she takes them by two, maybe three.

'Shit, shit!' she curses to herself as she hurries down the stairs. She remembers as she runs that there was more than one of the beasts. 'Shit!!!' she thinks as she hurries down the stairs.

Reaching the bottom, she approaches the exit door, only to find two more vampires awaiting her arrival. 'SHIT!' she yells and grunts as she turns to hurry in the opposite direction, back up the stairs, although, to greet her was the vampire from the roof.

'Don't sweat it, bubs, I just wanted a little bit of a show and tell. You "show" me your neck, and I'll "tell" you what I'm gonna do with it!' he approaches her, jumping down the last few steps.

She whimpers, taking a few steps back. When her back hits the dank wall behind her, she realises she is stuck, and looks into the vampires yellow eyes. _No, _she tells herself, and kicks him back, to which the vampire replies, 'Ah, feisty,' and chuckles.

She grabs his neck and twists it off his shoulders with her other arm, releasing a shriek, rendering him a pile of dust. She chucks the head against the adjacent wall and watches it turn to dust also, then wipes her hands. She looks up to the two other vampires outside, who look surprised.

She smiles and heads forward, ready to take the two of them. 'So...who's next?' she yells as she kicks the door open and heads out. They begin to run from her, and she laughs. 'I'll catch you up, boys, count on it,' she tells them as they run, only to be surprised by the two vampires turning to dust, almost immediately. She frowns a little, startled by what she had just witnessed.

'If you can do it, do it immediately. _Never_ save it for later. You never know whose life you're wavin' goodbye to,' comes a deep voice, from behind the becoming piles of dust.

The girl walks forward. 'Who the hell are you?' she asks her, frowning and looking her up and down.

The girl shakes her head a little. 'Someone who can help you,' she says to her, and chucks the stakes aside. She approaches her and outstretches a hand. 'Jay, right?' she continues. 'I'm Faith.'

Jay looks at the hand in front of her, then up to the face of this girl, "Faith."

- - -

'Everything I heard about you was bad,' Jay explains as they walk along the park pathway. 'Like, how the Council wanted you dead, cos you killed a guy-'

'Yeah, way back when I was an irresponsible little brat. I've changed now, I'm different,' she interrupts, walking beside the young girl. She reckoned she was about seventeen, with shoulder length brown hair, just like her own, only completely straight, with slight layering. She glanced at the potential, taking in her figure. She was toned, looked strong, and held a determined stance. She couldn't tell her eye colour, mostly because her eyes were not wide enough to tell, but also because of the lack of light at night time.

'But how do I know? I mean, you could be...'

Faith shakes her head. 'No, the important thing is that I've learned from my mistakes.' She pauses and draws in a breath as she grasps the sleeve of her jacket. 'Listen, Jay...'

'How do you know my name? You've never met me before,' Jay says, looking at her.

Faith clenches her jaw and tilts her head to the side a little. 'I know people who know you. And...what you've done,' she says hesitantly, a twinge of nervousness clenching in her stomach.

'What I've _done_? What are you talking about?' she says smiling, as if awaiting some giddy response.

Faith touches her upper arm slightly and they both stop walking. 'Look, I went through the same thing. Not realising the consequences of my actions. I thought I was above everyone else, the Law, hell I thought I could do anything I wanted, and get away with it. But I realised that I wasn't and that I had to face up to what I did.'

'Yeah, course you did, you killed someone-'

'Yeah, and so did you, Jay.' She watches her as the girl breaks eye contact with her, looks down, and clenches her own jaw, as if to stop herself from screaming at this girl who didn't even know anything about her. 'It's not the first time something like that happened, I mean take me for an example.' She hits her a little on her upper arm. 'Hey.'

'What?' the girl snaps back, startling Faith a little.

'You gotta fess up, Jay, get over whatever fear you have inside of you-'

'Oh, what, do what's right?' She shakes her head and continues to walk. Faith hurries up behind her.

'Jay, wait-' Faith tries to grab her arm though Jay struggles out of her grasp and turns to face her.

'You don't even know me! Why don't you just leave me alone, like you could give a shit, anyway! You're just as bad!' She yells, all of a sudden feeling a pent up rage daring to do more than just surface.

'Listen, Jay, I understand you're bleeding inside right now, but that will all go away-'

'Oh, what, like it did for you?' She looks into Faith's eyes, and notices immediately how she had winced when she had said that. 'Yeah,' she nods. 'It makes no difference, doesn't it. Every day, you wish you could turn back the clock and do it differently, if at all.' She licks over her bottom lip. 'Faith, I have been to that place where you try to forget it all, pretend like it didn't happen. Run away from the problem, and it doesn't work!'

'So why are you doing it?' she cries in reply, spreading her arms out to her sides a moment.

'I'm not _doing _anything! Alright, I'm just _being. _Being _me. _Alright? Cos, there's nothing else that I _can _do! So why don't you just, take your advice crap, and give it to a fucking penitentiary; cos I'm not listening to it!' She walks away from Faith, leaving her behind, stunned.

'And what are you gonna do, huh? Carry on every day, "pretending like nothing happened" and living your life as a slayer, trying to right the wrong by saving other lives? Huh? Or are you just gonna run from the problem? Keep on goin' until it finally catches up with you, cos you know it will!' she yells to the girl walking quickly away from her.

Faith shakes her head a little. 'Fuck, Jay, walking away from the problem makes you a LOSER. Why don't you face up to the problem already?'

'And be all tough shit like you, Faith?' Jay shouts back to her from the other end of the park, turning on her heel now, looking back at the dark figure yards away from her. 'Yeah cos, you're so wonderfully perfect, goin' for the "Buffy" look an' all.' She begins walking in the opposite direction towards Faith again. 'So c'mon, tell me, if you're so wonderful, how come it took _you _so long to admit you killed a guy?'

'It doesn't matter how long it took me, I did it and that's the point.'

'No, it's not the point, Faith. Cos something was eating at you inside and you wanted to get rid of it before it consumed you, and you know it. Well you know what, I don't have that same thing! I'm not like you! I'm not under a curse to feel the guilt and pain of every mistake I bloody-well made! And you know why?' she cries, her voice breaking at the thought of her own emotions overpowering her.

'Oh, don't even try it- denial will get you nowhere! You killed someone and that makes you're a murderer- period. You're mortal. You _are _cursed to feel every emotion you deserve, don't try to make it seem as if you blocked it out so well it doesn't affect you anymore.' Faith shakes her head as she looks down at her pacing feet, and then squints a little, looking back up to the slim figure she had met just a while ago. She was told to bring her in. Not to be 'killed' by the Council. Not to be taken to prison. She had to train her. For real. Except for this girl didn't realise that. 'You're just _like _me. No direction, trying to escape reality itself by thrusting in that power you know you deal with _so _well. Rushing in for every kill you can take because you know you can, but you know something? It's not about the adrenaline, Jay, it never was. That's no escape from reality. Reality is that there's a vampire waiting to suck the life out of you, and you're becoming so jaded that you think there's no way that any_thing_ will be able to stop you.'

Jay stops dead in her tracks, and thinks a moment about the knife she slid into her back pocket before heading out on patrol. Forgetting about it before was an advantage, because that meant she had it now. 'Nothing _can _stop me.'

'Unstoppable, right? The "Chosen Girl" – just one of many.' Faith chuckles beneath her breath. 'Every slayer's destiny is to die. At some point or another. Whether you let that be sooner or later, that's whatever. But when your life is over, it's _over._'

'That's not true, Buffy's lived after dying, what twice?'

Faith shakes her head a split second, keeping her eyes focussed solely on Jay and everything she as doing. 'Not the point.' She inhales and licks over her lips, and clasps her hands together. 'You're just a potential slayer, girlfriend, your life isn't worth anymore than that guy next door is. You serve one purpose, and one purpose only- to rid of evil. No one cares about you, no one ever did. They're not gonna thank you or be grateful that you saved the world from an apocalyptic demon. You're about as worthless as the gum right there on the pavement. No one cares, no one ever did. And so the moment you destroy what you "could've" been to this world, you destroy your life. Right before your eyes.' She draws in another breath and takes a step towards Jay. 'You do all this killing, Jay...and you're _so_ afraid to die...'

'Shut up, you bitch, you know nothing!' Knowing that the threatening rage inside of her was bursting to be released, she slid the knife out of her pocket and threw it in the direction of the Slayer all in one motion, so angry at her words that she had to act upon them, right now. She wasn't facing her hell and she never would.

Faith catches the knife, right in front of her face, knowing that one more millisecond and she would've been toast.

Jay hurries toward the Slayer and punches her dead on in the face, causing her to stumble back a little. The Slayer counters that punch with a backhand across the girl's face, sending her off to the side a little. She grabs her arm and flings her back in the opposite direction, and she falls to the ground. 'You're a worthless piece of shit, and no one cares about you because you're such a screw-up!'

Jay screams out loud and scrambles to her feet, and rushes towards Faith, tackling her to the ground. She pulls back on her heels and repeatedly slaps Faith across the face, who tries to block her blows, but realises she is in fact a match for her power. She pushes her back with her arms and hurries to her feet, before countering her with a hooked up punch. Jay whimpers as she stumbles backwards, then hurries forwards and lands a middle kick in the Slayer's stomach. She lets out a grunt before catching that foot and twisting it round, pulling the girl off her feet. She watches as the girl lays on the floor for just a moment. 'A worthless piece of shit, it's ALL that you are! Nobody wants you, Jay, nobody ever did!' Jay grabs at Faith's leg beside her face and pulls her down, screaming at her as she does.

'Shut up!' she scrambles to her feet and goes to kick the Slayer, who moves out of the way too fast and jumps to her feet.

'But that's what makes you special, isn't it, girlfriend. That's what makes _you _different from the rest, huh. You never wanna give up, do you...' she says, wiping a little blood off of her mouth. She goes to punch Jay, who blocks it, and she grabs her blocking hand and uses her other hand to punch her though Jay blocks that also. She grabs her hand. 'Deal with it. One purpose,' she whispers to the girl, before shoving her backwards. 'One purpose only. To slay evil.'

Jay glances down at the pavement, seeing her knife there. 'You don't need weapons, Jay. Just yourself. Like how you beat that girl to death with your bare hands.'

'Don't you ever talk about-' She hurries towards Faith, slapping her across the face, then punching her dead on in the stomach.

'With your BARE hands, Jay!' she yells. She straightens and in one swift movement, grabs Jay's hair and turns her round so that her back is to her. She grabs her arm and twists it behind her back, and pulls her in close to her, and whispers in her ear. 'Deal with it.' She shoves her forward and watches her fall to the ground. She wipes her hands briefly on her trousers and then looks at the beat up potential, panting, sweating, done over. 'You wanna get through this, you have to learn how to deal with people grating on your nerves like that, girlfriend. Learn how to _be _an animal. And don't be afraid to sweat it. Don't be afraid to attack your instincts, even if you feel you should go with them.' She reaches out a hand to the potential, who looks at it first, grabs her knife, then grabs it, and gets to her feet.

She nods. '...I'm a little confused.'

Faith chuckles a little. 'You're almost as good as me. But one thing you have to know...is that you NEVER, EVER, give in. Deal with it. Move on.'

Jay frowns a little as she tries to straighten out. 'So...you're not here to bring me in?'

Faith scoffs. 'Pssh, no. You wanna go to jail, that's your own business. I'm here to take you to Buffy. Just thought I'd see what I was handling first.'

Jay furrows her eyebrows at the Slayer, still heaving, panting for breath. They begin to walk and she holds eye contact with her for just a little while longer. 'I like your style,' she says, as if still puzzled at how she had been tricked. She and Faith laugh a little and Jay slides the knife into her back pocket as they disappear into the night.

The End


End file.
